Growth is the currency of all startups. Whether we’ve got investors checking up on us or we’re bootstrapping our way forward, the number one metric of performance is always growth.

Sometimes, however, growth can get itself in the way of what’s best for a startup. As a software company starts growing at more than 50% month on month, other priorities arise that can (and should) place continuous growth lower down the ladder of priorities.

Undefined processes, bugs in the software, stability, scalability, and security are just a few of the things that need to be addressed. An increase in customers also leads to a higher demand for customer support. Expansion is exciting – but just because focus is on growth, the service for existing customers should not be compromised.

We at Shopbox recently announced our partnership with Microsoft and Hewlett Packard. Together, we have financed and launched a Windows 10 version of our successful Shopbox app with the aim of cutting queue waiting times and delivering faster service.

At Shopbox, we’ve made huge strides recently with the implementation of the Windows app for a major quick service customer in Sweden. However, we’ve now decided to slow down growth in order to focus on one of our core values of providing an excellent, stable, and simple product.

Based on this commitment, the entire company is currently taking a “time-out” to focus on the core of the product and make sure that the product delivers above expectations of existing and potential future clients. This is something that we feel essential because if our product delivers above expectations, we’re sure to get referrals – something that’s extremely important in an industry like ours.

Important to keep in mind though, is that a time-out is not a time-out from the hard work we usually put into growing our startup – on the contrary, it’s a time for focusing on making absolutely sure the entire company delivers.

It’s not just making sure the entire experience of the product will be more seamless, smooth, coherent and reliable. It’s not just making sure that tech delivers bug-free code, or that our amazing UX skills are used the right way – it’s also ensuring that our communication is aligned, our service great and our funnel smoothly working.

And why exactly is this so important? As Eric Ries so famously puts it:

A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.

In such conditions of uncertainty, being agile, having the ability to act fast and deliver promptly is essential. While those features are inevitable to achieve success, mastering the art of navigating in conditions of uncertainty also requires a deep understanding of the vehicle which you operate; your own product. And understanding your own products starts with defining it, with aligning it, and with establishing the right basis for an uncertain future. And a time-out to go back to your values, back to what you actually wanted to change in this world, back to your “why” – serves just this purpose.

At the end of this period, we will come out on the other side as a grown-up startup. A startup that understands the need for processes, but that also incorporates flexibility – a startup that delivers a seamless experience in an almost entirely automated practice. A startup that knows and acts according to our values. And finally, a grown-up startup that has found its shelf in the market and now simply needs to conquer the rest of the shelves.

When we get out on the other side, we’ll be ready to take on the world. And we’ll be ready to grow – even faster than before.

When you think about startups, what hubs spring to mind? For many, the word “startup” calls to mind big companies such as Facebook who are growing out of Silicon Valley. In Europe, London and Berlin are the cities most strongly associated with the startup culture. But over the past few years, a new startup community has been blossoming somewhere a little colder: the Nordic countries. Sweden, Denmark, and Finland are leading the way when it comes to new tech startups in Europe – but why?

The Government Factor

Despite living in the dark for half of the year and paying high taxes, the Nordic countries consistently top lists ranking quality of life and happiness. A large part of this is due to the social welfare programs in place, ensuring that citizens are taken care of. It’s therefore no surprise that the government also plays a part in the success of startups in these countries.

Take Sweden, for example. Thanks to a healthy economy that stems from government mechanisms implemented in the 1990s to keep national debt low, entrepreneurs can feel comfortable starting a business without having to worry about a crippling recession. The Swedish government also understands the value in research and development, with 3.6% of GDP being invested into it in 2009. There are also different governmental seed fund programs that help accelerate startups.

The Swedish government has even helped plant the seed early, having offered citizens a tax break to buy a personal computer in the 1990s. An early adoption of technology has contributed to the growth of tech startups in the country. And, with free higher education, Swedes can afford to attend university and develop the skills required for technology-related careers. There is no shortage of talent for startups, with 18% of Stockholm residents employed in the tech sector.

The Cultural Factor

There is an old concept in Scandinavia known as the Jante Law, which encourages citizens to see themselves as part of the collective rather than as someone special. It promotes egalitarianism and conformity and discourages personal gain. Some of the key concepts of Jante Law can still be seen in Nordic office environments, such as flat hierarchies, but mostly it has become an old-fashioned concept that the younger generation is looking to disrupt. New startups in the region have shown a dedication to creativity and innovation that does not fit in with Jante Law.

Scandinavians are now looking for ways to stand out from the crowd.

Growing up in such small populations (Sweden is the largest Nordic country with just over 9.5 million inhabitants) forces entrepreneurs in the region to think internationally from the start. And this mindset has paid off: between 2000 and 2014, 487 startups exited Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland at a value of USD$47.9 billion.

The Success Factor

Possibly the greatest factor helping new startups thrive up north is the history of successful companies that have already established themselves in these cities. Nokia’s downfall in Finland during the economic recession benefitted many local startups as Nokia’s top talent, equipped with plenty of technological know-how, found positions on the boards of some of Finland’s 200 gaming startups that have been founded since 2009. Helsinki now hosts the annual Slush conference, one of the biggest conferences in the world for tech startups.

In Sweden, successful entrepreneurs continue to feed the startup economy with investments of their money and experience. A report conducted in Stockholm found a web of connections between famous companies such as Skype and Spotify and newer firms like King and iZettle.

While Denmark has produced several notable startups, so far not many founders have reinvested in the country after expanding internationally. Thankfully, as the startup scene in Copenhagen flourishes, this is beginning to change.

Having people around who have succeeded and sold is vital to the ecosystem. We don’t have the American dream embedded in our culture so we need someone to push us.

So, if you’re looking for The Next Big Thing, turn your eyes to the north. A fantastic environment for startups is ensuring these countries will continue to churn out successful companies for years to come.

The annual event features a main stage and startup stage where guests ranging from tech titans to aspiring newcomers are at the forefront of their respective industries, leading audiences beyond the innovative age of retail as seen today and into tomorrow. The startup stage is where 16 startups with nine minutes each, will enter a pitch battle to convince three judges that they should be given the closing time on the WIRED Retail 2015 main stage.

The journey to startup stage began after Christian submitted an application where a WIRED representative approached him and two to three months of challenging interviews ensued. Christian was able to succeed not only because of our great product, but also our vision to change the mPOS industry with our “One-Business-One-App” solution. Shopbox was selected, and the only point of sale solution out of 15 other startups representing the industry. The judges for the startup stage included Rowland Manthorpe, associate editor of WIRED, Bindi Karia, a startup expert, mentor and financier, and Cheyney Robinson, chief creative officer of Europe at IBM Interactive Experience.

While Shopbox was given second place, WIRED UK editor David Rowan approached Christian congratulating him on a great speech as well as the product showing his appreciation and belief in the Shopbox POS software.

Our participation in WIRED Retail provides a strong validation of our point of sale system, and deepens our commitment to revolutionizing the payment industry. We appreciate the opportunity to present at WIRED, and look forward to the new opportunities opening up in Europe and beyond.

November is an exciting month for Shopbox. We have been present at various events around Europe: Digital Copenhagen in Denmark, Cartes Connexions in Paris and finally, WIRED Retail in London.

The Startup Stage ran alongside the Main Stage talks at the Wired Retail event. Here, a wide range of fast growing, and innovative businesses working in the retail sector introduced their organization and explained their objectives, aims, and applications.

As the name implies, the Startup Stage showcases startups and growth-stage businesses vying for the audience’s attention. These companies are at the forefront of their respective industries, and represent the current creative age of retail that is disrupting the business.

Our CEO Christian Zigler’s impressive speech about how Shopbox is transforming the restaurant and retail industry, received many great comments and interest from the public. As a result, we are thrilled to announce that Shopbox won 2nd place at the Startup Stage showcase. This is clear evidence that Shopbox is bringing the future of restaurants to our hands and changing the business forever.

Check out his presentation below.

WIRED gathered the most knowledgeable speakers and attendees, tech giants, ambitious entrepreneurs and future leaders. As a result, we met and connected with many diverse people across a wide range of industries that showed a great interest in possible partnerships with Shopbox. We now return to Denmark with an expanded network of people, full of new ideas, and inspired.

Besides Shopbox, there were many other talented companies at the Wired Startup Stage:

– VISR VR: Wants to make immersive virtual reality available for everyone.

–CommonSense Robotics: Will enable everyone to make their groceries online – the robots will take care of the logistics of the shopping facility.

–Cimagine: Enables consumers to use their mobile, and wearable devices to visualize products in life-like 3D.

–Paymium: Allows you to buy and sell Bitcoins with ease on the European exchange.

Let’s face it, banks are having a hard time trying to meet expectations of small business owners; especially delivering integrated solutions that go beyond the traditional non-customized offers. Archaic systems and huge institutions have brought tech entrepreneurs into an expanding arena of financial technology.

FinTech innovators introduce different points of view regarding financial services and digital technology that questions the status quo of traditional banks. New businesses are focused on constant innovation and serve their customers so much faster than traditional banks. They help to ease the payment process, save money, reduce fraud, promote financial planning, and most importantly – they move the huge financial industry forward.

The global investment in FinTech ventures tripled to $12.21 billion in 2014, clearly showing that the digital revolution has arrived to the financial sector. Moreover, established financial players are starting to take small steps to engage with emerging innovators.

Many of those businesses are long after the experimental phase, but they have to be tested in a downturn. It is important to match the convenience and security of a current account in a bank. Nevertheless, many banks will gain a lot from FinTech innovators. Square, for instance, is a system that makes it easier to take card payments and there is no doubt that companies like that will boost banks’ financial volumes. “The Silicon Valley is coming”, says Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase.
According to interviews and analysis of FinTech Innovation Lab London, there are three behaviors that enable banks to work successfully with fintech companies and reimagine themselves digitally:

1. Act open

Open innovation is the heart of the digital revolution, says Accenture report about Future of Fintech and Banking. For large banks the process of engaging with external technology solutions often requires opening up banks’ intellectual property and expertise to outside FinTech innovators in order to help them discover new areas of growth. For example, an open Application Programming Interface (API) offered by FinTech players can connect third parties to existing core banking to offer various new financial services. API is a glue for modern application integration in complex B2B ecosystems.

2. Collaborate

A huge challenge for big banks is to adopt a collaborative approach with innovators and start-ups in order to generate new value for their customers. So far over 80% of banks from Accenture’s survey believe that working with start-ups will bring new ideas. Take the Shopbox and Nordea partnership which provides a simple and relevant solution to Nordea SMEs accounts: the idea is to provide small business owners with the best possible tools. The CEO, Christian Clausen recently announced that the bank will invest more than one billion pounds in IT development over the next few years.

3. Invest

A venture investment is the heart of a start-up innovation model. Now more than ever, well-established banking players are taking this route in order to generate innovation to their business.

The funding that FinTech companies receive is booming. There is no doubt that those companies are the future of the financial sector.

Conclusion

It is clear that a digital revolution in the financial industry is inevitable, and it has already started. Banks have to open up for new opportunities that fintech innovators are bringing so it can help them to create inexpensive, improved and faster services.

In today’s market, the possibilities of opening up your own business is endless especially with numerous inexpensive, and customizable platforms to choose from. Ecommerce is a booming industry; in fact, global ecommerce sales are expected to become a $3 trillion industry by 2019 (Internet Retailer).

With statistics like that, we understand why more entrepreneurs are moving towards that direction, but don’t be fooled. Starting your own business is satisfying and rewarding, but it’s also full of challenges. It takes time, money, and energy to create a successful ecommerce site that customers love, and the growth of your business depends on the ability to increase sales and acquire new customers.

It’s hard, we get it, but thankfully to help you along your journey, we’ve created a list of seven mistakes to avoid when starting your online business.

1. Not Knowing Your Target Market Or Niche

When starting your online business, it’s all about differentiation and having a competitive advantage. One of the biggest mistakes that you can make when starting out is having too many products, and too many targeted consumers to reach. The online marketplace is rough, and without a proper target market or niche, you will just become part of the noise and fall into oblivion- to put it nicely.

Narrow your products, and segment your audience. You need to have a reason why customers would come to you instead of your competitors, so get specific as possible.

2. Website: Too Much Style and Not Enough Substance

There are many affordable platforms to host your site with hundreds of layouts to fit every business need. When starting your business, do not spend hours finding the most stylish, and interactive website. Not only is it a waste of time, it’s also a waste of money. What you should be focusing on is having a simple, and responsive website that is easy to navigate, and able to grab someone’s attention.

3. Forgetting To Focus On Selling Your Product

Now that you have a target market and your website, it’s time to focus on selling your product. You need to have copy that sells. This includes:

Throughout your copy, make sure you’re focusing on how the product is beneficial to the consumer, and how it can improve their lives.

4. Not Developing a Marketing Strategy

A well-rounded marketing strategy can consist of SEO, PPC, email and even social media. It’s important to take advantage of these tools because this is how your consumers are able to find you.

Pay-per-click advertising is one of the easiest ways to attract traffic to your site because it allows you to test different keywords, and it displays on search pages immediately. Through PPC, you gain immediate traffic and can discover your best keywords that you can use throughout your site.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) unlike PPC is free and is necessary as well because it leads to increased traffic and sales. The ultimate goal of SEO is to build a relevant keyword list that potential customers are using to find your product. Using these keywords throughout your site, and posts is important in making your site visible to consumers.

Email is an important tool as well because it’s cheaper than print, or TV and highly targeted. Email marketing allows you to follow up with leads and to share valuable, and informative content with your customers.

There are numerous marketing tools that can be used to drive traffic to your online store, and not all of them may work, but it’s important that you try, and prioritize one channel at a time. Developing a marketing strategy will allow you to discover what works best for your business, and how it can increase traffic to your website.

5. Disregarding Social Media

Social media is an important platform because this is where your potential customers share ideas, and opinions.

Depending on what you’re selling, popular platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter can make your brand accessible and assist you in listening and learning what your customers want. Social media is free, and fun to use. Don’t pass up on the opportunity to engage with your customers.

6. Not Measuring Your Site

Throughout your ecommerce business, it’s important to measure your sales as well as with marketing campaigns. Ecommerce is extremely periodic; you’ll have highs and lows. A yearly report will give you a well-rounded idea of your growth, as well as statistics to spot trends and react to them. Google analytics is a great tool to keep track of your yearly activities.

7. Lack of Customer Service and Personalization

Even if your site is online, customer service is important and when issues arise, it’s essential that your customers can easily seek personalized help rather than generic responses. You also need to be prepared to take returns and process a variety of payments, including refunds if necessary.

Conclusion

Starting an ecommerce business is difficult, and takes up a lot of time, and there is no doubt that you will make mistakes along the way, but that’s part of the process. The best thing to do is be aware of the mistakes that you could be making, and prepare yourself.

Local shops are critical for the economic and social development of emerging markets and they play a major role in creating jobs, economic growth, social stability, and contribute to the development of the dynamic private sector. However, the access to financial services that assist the growth of these companies are relatively constrained and limited to simple transaction services.

To address these challenges Nordea has partnered with the successful startup Shopbox to provide a simple and relevant solution to Nordea SME accounts. Shopbox an all-in-one business management app for shops and restaurants. The idea is to provide small business owners with the best possible tools to manage their business. The potential to help small businesses grow is immense, and the vision is to make these businesses better at managing their money. “This is something that all business owners want, and in our opinion something banks should focus more on as this is what we believe to be the future of retail banking” says Christian Zigler, founder and CEO of Shopbox.

“The idea is to help the business owner make more money, and manage liquidity better,” says Jan Sirich, Head of Experimentation and Learning at Nordea. Nordea is the biggest Nordic bank with more than 500.000 SME customers. CEO Christian Clausen recently announced that the bank will invest more than 1 billion pounds in IT development over the next years.

“We are excited about this partnership that has been in development since late spring,” says Zigler. “With this agreement small business owners will hopefully soon have an integrated point-of-sale and banking service that is meaningful for both the small business, and the bank. Our mission is to provide more power to the small shop,and assist in their growth. Integrating banking and shop services with for example a cloud-based cash register is an excellent first step towards doing that.”

The official launch of the product from Nordea and Shopbox is not yet determined. Currently the solution is being tested on 30 shop customers with intensive feedback on how to make the product more beneficial.

About Shopbox

Founded in 2011, Shopbox is an all-in-one business management app that integrates cash register, inventory, finance, HR, webshop and loyalty program.

Shopbox is growing bigger and bigger! Therefore, we are thrilled to announce that our founder, Christian Zigler will be the only Danish speaker on the startup stage on WIRED Retail event 2015 in London.

What is WIRED Retail 2015 all about?

From life-changing apps to 3D printing and human-computer interfaces. The agenda of the WIRED Retail 2015 will cover various topics about new technologies bringing our lives to the next stage of the digital integration.

It is a one-day life changing showcase for everyone who wants to meet tech giants, ambitious entrepreneurs and future leaders. The most knowledgeable speakers from different corners of the world will share their thoughts, experience and ideas with the public.

Meet Christian Zigler at WIRED Retail Bupa Startup Stage

Christian believes in big dreams, constant development and by being CEO of Shopbox he wants to change the way we look at business. He spend countless hours on studying the future of retail and its prospects, so he knows how many opportunities there are for everyone. You will be attending a visionary speech about how Shopbox looks at the retail business.

Christian will talk about insights of payments and how this will be disrupted and dominated by non-banking companies and why retailers need to consider adding “e-” in everything they do from POS to staff. Christian Zigler understands the future of retail – we all need to be a little more creative in everything we do and to start thinking like startups and put “e” in everything. It is a long way to go but he believes that everything is possible with the right set of online tools.

The future of POS is here

So what is Shopbox? It is an app designed to be an all-in-one solution for small shop owners. It has a cash register, customer club, eshop and inventory function in the same app. It enables retailers to maintain their entire business running multiple outlets and take care of them using only a smartphone. It helps reducing costs and more importantly – save time so business owners can focus running their business. Not managing it.

So why is it so important to be on WIRED Retail?

Did you know that WIRED Retail 2015 event is organized by “Wired” magazine community? Back in 1993 the magazine touted itself as the “Rolling Stone” of technology. Mainly because of its originality and cultural impact.

Now, WIRED community uncovers the most amazing stories from diverse, wide-ranging people about how technology and innovation has changed their lives. Whether it is a new product, economy or new media, there are incredible networking opportunities and possibilities to get inspired by people just like you, hungry for inspiration. All the speakers bring the future to your hands – this is the occasion to create trends and transform retail forever.

Starting a business is a lot like starting a marriage. At first, all parties are in dreamland, with a vision of changing the world, having lots of fun and raking in the profits. But too soon, reality sets in: product development is stuck at that 90 percent mark, a key person leaves, and customers are talking but not buying.

At Shopbox, we identified and are trying to address these challenges. We believe it applies to other startups.

Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is at the heart of the selling process. One estimate is that it costs five times as much to attract new customers as it does to keep an existing one. The relationship between the customer and the organisation is, therefore, an important one.

Startup funding

Funding is a major concern for startups and small businesses. When the economy tanked, it became harder to convince investors and banks to part with the cash that’s essential for growth in the early days of a business. Credit today is tight, and it’s not precisely clear when it will become available.

Competition

Twenty-two percent of entrepreneurs mentioned increased competition as a major threat to their success. The solution to this problem? Build a better brand. Credibility often starts with a great website, followed by a good online marketing strategy and media coverage. It is just as important to make sure you clearly communicate why you’re in business–not just what you do. Instead of “We build websites,” go for something more direct and goal-oriented: “We help businesses grow.”

Unrealistic expectations

Business projections are not always on an excel sheet. If you can do it right, it’s great but you need to have a realistic expectation of your business. This means to think of the best and a worst-case scenario and prepare for both.

Constant change

Rapid changes in technology can throw a startup off-kilter. As many tech entrepreneurs know, there’s a lot of pressure to move quickly and beat the competition with a better solution. Making a plan it’s vital, but if you are not able to adapt to constant changes it’s not going to happen as you think it will.

Partnership decisions

As a new business, partnering with another company in a related field may seem like a great way to grow. However, the stakes are much higher for tech startups, whose operations can easily be ruined by hitching their wagon to a fad. When it comes to choosing which companies to do business with, having clear policies in place, can help you make the best decisions for your startup.

To sum up, startups need people who are crazy for startups, who challenge themselves everyday and who don’t bother for immediate financial benefits. Finding such a fit is certainly not an easy task.

Getting the right people is the biggest challenge a startup has. You are too young to attract the real talent, but you desperately need it to beat the big guys. Time is as critical as money in a startup, and it is important to do enough, to make a little money on the way to the big vision.

Our vision is to be the only app that a business owner and his/her staff will need to manage and run their small businesses (retail shops, restaurants, cafes, …).

So, what about payments, accounting and all those other services that you may already be using?

Shopbox’s mantra is to be insanely customer-centric, and our integration strategy reflects that. Our goal is to integrate with the tools you need.

Flexibility

We want our customers to work with the tools that they’re familiar with, not enforce new tools on them. That’s why we’re focusing on integrating with as many third-party tools as possible.

Independency

Some of our clients work with payment provider X, but later they may want to switch when their economics make different sense. We don’t force customers to be locked into a single supplier so they can easily switch when they wish.

Ownership

Shopbox is the first app allowing shop owners to have have a birds-eye view over their business in a single app. Before, they’d have to consult multiple sites and fetch data from multiple data points, use excel… Now, we let you run and control your business from one app, like it should be.

Low Cost

We want our customers to be better at their business, with less costs and without sacrificing quality. Our integrations reflect that.

We are already integrated with Dinero, e-conomic and Billy’s Billing and are currently working on a large number of integrations that are released on an ongoing basis.

Are you considering using Shopbox?

We wanna know what you need. If you can’t find the integration that you need, give us a call. We’re currently finalizing a few integrations that will be launched very soon and we want to know which should be prioritized based on your needs.

Interested in integrating your app with Shopbox?

We are now welcoming multiple software provider to integrate with Shopbox. We invite you to contact us to discuss more details and to share your vision on how we can become great partners for the benefit of our customers.

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